As always, Real Madrid are attached to the most expensive of transfers available on the market, but maybe this time, with Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez being their targets, while Tottenham & Liverpool are quite reluctant to sell, it’s going to cost a bit more than anyone initially expected.

Prices rise when Real Madrid are interested, but for some reason, most players find it very hard to refuse to the club that has won only one league title in the past five seasons and hasn’t been to the Champions League final since 2002. You can buy greatness, or use your money to pave a road to it, but class is permanent, as the famous saying says, and Real Madrid, despite the internal dealings that aren’t always so respectable, reek of football class, which makes them so tempting most of the time.

For Luis Suarez, it probably would have been any big club because of his situation in England. But the rumors of his release clause have been false; it’s rare that in England teams sign players on release clauses. He might want to go, but Liverpool, who see Suarez as the basis for everything they plan to achieve in the next few years, aren’t in a hurry to pick up the money. After standing by Suarez through think and thin despite the negative backlash it created against the club and its personnel, Liverpool don’t think they should be rewarded with disloyalty and a desire to leave.

For Gareth Bale, it isn’t about loyalty, but more about being the only reason that Tottenham made it this close to the Champions League yet missed out again. At some point, when you keep hearing that you’re much too good for the club you’re playing for, you begin to believe it. Bale scored 21 goals last season and took another step forward in his evolution into one of the best footballers in the world. Staying with Spurs, despite what Andre Villas-Boas allegedly helped him achieve, just seems to have a ceiling to the accomplishment he can look forward to.

But just like Liverpool, Tottenham are in no rush. Bale hasn’t come out and handed a transfer request, and while he would like a better salary which Spurs might give him, his current contract runs until 2016. Real Madrid are going to need to spend a lot of money in order to make this one happen, not to mention both of them.

But how much? As of now, the talks around Suarez’ transfer are around the €40 million mark, but that’s only coming from Spain. Most people in England don’t think Liverpool would accept that offer, and nothing short of €45-50 million will be enough to sell the Uruguayan. Bale? Spurs won’t sell him for less than £50-60 million, with some even talking about a new record of £85 million, which roughly translates in to €100 million.

So is that €150 million for two players? Real Madrid can afford that, probably, and if not the banks would be happy to cover their loans, as they have in the past. But in this day and age of financial fair play and other regulations, it seems like a bad piece of business, as most Galacticos transfers tend to be.